Matcha Tea: What It Is & Why You Should Drink It

Drinking matcha tea is an easy way to add extraordinary health benefits to your diet. 10x more nutrient dense than traditional green tea, matchas potency supersedes regular tea by a long shot. Matcha is a stone ground, powdered green tea grown and produced in Japan . The tea leaves are grown in the shade, which increases its chlorophyll and L-Theanine content. Then, the leaves are carefully stone ground to produce a fine powder.

 The powder is not strained, so you’re consuming the entire leaf with each cup you drink.  In fact, you would need to drink 10 cups of green tea to match the potency of 1 cup of matcha.

Some of the health benefits of drinking matcha tea include improved mental alertness and clarity, stronger immune defense, and enhanced detoxification. Polyphenol and catechin-rich matcha promotes focus, relaxation, and has been found to help prevent a wide array of chronic diseases.

Benefits

Promotes Wakefulness, Enhances Mood & Mental Alertness

Matcha tea is unique because the process of shading and harvesting increases the content of L-Theanine, an amino acid that helps balance the caffeine. L-Theanine creates alpha brain waves, which are electrical frequencies between 8-13 hertz that are characterized by mental clarity, calm concentration and relaxed wakefulness. It’s similar to the feeling of slipping into a daydream, or awaking from a meditative state. Like all green tea, Matcha contains caffeine- sans jitters, crash and irritability. The caffeine binds to the teas catechins, flavonoid antioxidants found only in green tea. It releases slowly as the catechins metabolize: providing steady energy for 3-4 hours.

Fights Cancer & Disease

EGCg (epigallocatechin gallate) is a powerful antioxidant found in green tea.  Antioxidants fight infections, disease and prevent aging. Research has determined that ECGg helps specifically fight cancer. Catechins like EGC counteract the effects of free radicals, stop the progression of cancer cells and play an important role in maintaining a strong immune system. The oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) of matcha is 1573 units/per gram… this is 20x greater than blueberries (a well known antioxidant powerhouse). Matcha alone contains 137x more EGCg than regular green tea.

Aids Weight Loss

Matcha tea boosts metabolism and burns calories. EGCg has been shown to increase the rate of burning stored fat as energy, as well as decreasing the formation of new fat cells. Research has found catechins, particularly EGCg to enhance the body’s rate of calorie burning each day.  The antioxidant’s thermogenic properties increase the body’s metabolic rate, which is the number of calories you burn at rest daily. Thermogenisis may even result in more calories burned during exercise! Matcha tea may help reduce body fat as well. Chlorophyll, the green pigment found in green plants, increases the number of lipolytic enzymes that break down fatty acids in the liver.

Detoxifies the Body

Chlorophyll is a well known, effective blood purifier that helps to remove chemicals and heavy metals from the body.  Matcha has substantially higher chlorophyll content than other green teas. During production, the tea leaves are shaded from sunlight a few weeks before harvest.  This results in an increased production of chlorophyll in the plant, which is stored solar energy. The adhesive cellulose of chlorophylls cell wall sticks to the atoms of heavy metals and carries them out as waste. Chlorophyll also carries oxygen throughout the body, which helps cleanse your blood.